“An SMS?” He sounded very doubtful and I started to panic. “Yes. On my phone. An urgent SMS. And let me tell you . . . they used a lot of very, very urgent-looking emojis, you know.” I put my hands up to my face and opened my mouth. “Screaming ghost face emoji. Aaaahhhhhh,” I said and immediately regretted it when I saw the look on Mr. Stark’s face. My heart started beating in my throat as the panic grew. Without thinking, I opened my mouth and said, “Should I put the call through or would you like to take it somewhere else?” The second the words were out of my mouth I realized the mistake I’d just made.
“I thought you said it was an SMS?” Mr. Grey jumped in, not letting that golden opportunity to play sleuth slip him by.
“Uh . . . uh . . .” I stuttered, not sure how to salvage this.
“Miss Granger is new here,” Ryan finally said. “I think she’s confused. Aren’t you confused, Miss Granger?” He looked at me and I started nodding.
“I’m confused,” I said. “So, so confused.” I did something stupid with my face and hands and then regretfully said, “Confused face emoji,” before I slipped out of the office as quickly as I could. I sat back down at my desk and held my head in my hands. That hadn’t gone well at all. In fact—
My phone beeped and I looked down at it. It was from Ryan.
Ryan:I said END THE MEETING!
How the hell was he typing a message to me and Mr. Grey hadn’t noticed? I looked at him and realized that although he was still talking, his one hand was under his desk discreetly sending a message. God, the man had serious phone skills. He obviously did this a lot. My phone beeped again and I looked down.
Ryan:NOW!
I stood up out of my seat and looked around. I thought back to the telenovela and searched my mind for a scene I could play out. And then it hit me. The evacuation scene, when the mutated, infected rats which were being used as biological weapons were released into the building. I walked down the corridor to where I’d seen it earlier. And in three, two, one, I activated the fire alarm. The alarm blared. It was so loud that I had to cover my ears. I ran straight for his office and, this time, I threw myself into it. I did a perfectly rehearsed forward roll and then jumped to my feet.
“What the hell, Miss Granger?” Ryan said when he saw me.
But I didn’t say a word. Instead, I looked at them both with perfectly rehearsed horror plastered across my face.
“What?” Mr. Grey asked, looking nervous.Was he really buying this?Maybe I was a better actress than I thought? I dialed it up a notch.
I shook my head. Bit my lip and then raised my hands to my head and started shaking it from side to side, just as Ramona had done.
“What?” Mr. Grey shot out of his seat now.And the Oscar goes to . . . me!
“It’s bad,” I said, my voice shaking and quivering.
Ryan shot up out of his seat too. “What?” he asked. Even he was buying this performance of mine.
And that’s when I did it. It was perfect and brilliant and . . . tears of fear welled up in my eyes. “It’s the containment field,” I said, looking behind me as if I was terrified of something. Mr. Grey looked behind me too.
“Containment what?” Ryan asked.
“It’s a disaster. It’s been breached,” I suddenly screeched. They both jumped.
“We have to get out of here. NOW!” I grabbed my chest in panic and then, just as Ramona González had done, I stared off into an imaginary camera and narrowed my eyes like Melania. In fact, the First Lady had been a great inspiration for many of Ramona González’s facial expressions. Mostly those of distress and confusion.
Mr. Grey suddenly bolted out of the office. I quickly stopped my dramatic stare and then gave Ryan a smiley thumbs up followed by a wink. I expected him to smile back. But he didn’t. In fact, he looked very displeased. He shook his head at me in blatant disapproval and stormed out of his office.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Ryan
One whole hour. Sixty goddamn minutes and they were all still standing outside the building in the emergency parking lot assembly point. One hour was what he’d hoped to avoid when ending the meeting, but Doris had failed at that miserably. And even though this had been a very false alarm—what the fuck was a containment field anyway?—it was company policy that when the alarm went off, the building needed to be swept by firemen and given the all clear before people could go back in.
He walked over to Doris; she had been avoiding him for the past hour. Every time he walked in her direction, she’d ducked behind someone in the 300-strong crowd of staff members who were all clumped together. Finally, he caught up to her.
“A whole hour,” he hissed into her ear so the others wouldn’t hear him. “That is how long we have been standing outside and approximately how long I was hoping to avoid with Mr. Grey.”
She turned and looked at him, taking a small step back. She looked terrified. “You said to end the meeting. You used capital letters!”
“I meant pull me out, not set off an alarm so the whole building needed to be evacuated.”
“I tried to pull you out, remember?” she said.
